Most Americans Don’t Understand How the Internet Works

 Most Americans Don’t Understand How the Internet Works

© Provided by Time Article Pew Web IQ

Most American Internet users aren't familiar with the concepts underpinning the Internet and common technology, a survey released Tuesday found.

Pew Research Center's Web IQ Quiz polled Americans with 17 questions relating to the web and technology, varying in technicality from where hashtags are used to the what Moore's Law means, according to the survey.

 While the majority of quiz takers correctly defined common Internet terms like net neutrality, most respondents struggled to correctly answer other questions about the infrastructure behind the Internet, like whether "Internet" and "World Wide Web" are the same.

The survey also found that only 44% of respondents were aware that a company's privacy policy doesn't necessarily mean the firm will actually keep users' information confidential.

Younger Internet users performed the best on the quiz, with the lowest age bracket (18-29) answering on average 10.1 out of the 17 questions correctly (about 60%). The highest age bracket (65+) answered on average 7.8 out of the 17 questions correctly (about 45%).

Simple Circuit Could Double Cell Phone Data Speeds

       A circuit that lets a radio send and receive data simultaneously over the same frequency could supercharge wireless data transfer. 

• By DCS on November 26, 2014

Demand for wireless bandwidth is growing rapidly.

This circuit could allow cell phones and other devices to double their data bandwidth. 

A relatively simple circuit invented by researchers at the University of Texas could let smartphones and other wireless devices send and receive data twice as fast as they do now.

The circuit makes it possible for a radio to send and receive signals on the same channel simultaneously – something known as “full-duplex” communications. That should translate to a doubling of the rate at which information can be moved around wirelessly.

Today’s radios must send and receive at different times to avoid drowning out incoming signals with their own transmissions. As a smartphone accesses the Internet via a cell tower, for example, its radio flips back and forth between sending and receiving, similar way to the way two people having a conversation take turns to speak and listen.

The new circuit, known as a circulator, can isolate signals coming into a device from those it is sending out, acting as a kind of selective filter in between a device’s antenna and its radio circuitry. Circulators are already a crucial part of radar systems, but until now they have always been built using strong magnets made from rare earth metals, making them bulky and unsuited to the circuit boards inside devices such as laptops and smartphones.

The new circuit design avoids magnets, and uses only conventional circuit components. “It’s very cheap, compact, and light,” says Andrea Alù, the associate professor who led the work. “It’s ideal for a cell phone.”
The two-centimeter-wide device could easily be miniaturized and added to existing devices with little modification to the design. “This is just a standalone piece of hardware you put behind your antenna.”

Alù’s circulator design looks, and functions, like a traffic circle with three “roads,” in the form of wires, leading into it. Signals can travel into, or out of, the circle via any of those wires. But components called resonators spaced around that circle force signals to travel around it only in a clockwise direction.

When a wireless device’s antenna is connected to one of the wires leading into the circle, it isolates signals that have just been received from those the device has generated for transmission itself. The new design is described by Alù and colleagues in a paper in the journal Nature Physics.

“This is definitely a significant research development,” says Philip Levis, an associate professor at Stanford. “It’s a very new way to look at a very old problem, and has some very good results.” However Levis notes that work remains to be done to convert the lab-bench breakthrough into something practical for the crucial frequency bands used for Wi-Fi, cellular, and other communications.

Alù says that his circulator can easily be adjusted to work at a wide range of frequencies, and that he is exploring options for commercializing the design. The circuit could, for instance, help simplify and improve technology being tested by some U.S. and European cellular carriers that uses a combination of software and hardware to allow full-duplex radio links (see “The Clever Circuit That Doubles Bandwidth”).

Joel Brand, vice president for product management at startup Kumu Networks, which developed that technology, says the new device could indeed be useful. “We would be happy to take advantage of it,” he says.

Samsung will reportedly shut down its ChatOn messaging service

As part of Samsung's overall restructuring plans that were revealed earlier this week, a new report says that the company will shut down its ChatOn messaging service


The Korea Times quotes an unnamed Samsung official as saying, "Samsung Electronics plans to exit from the mobile messaging market from region-to-region as part of corporate strategy to restructure unprofitable businesses and improve profitability." Another unnamed Samsung official stated, "Samsung is on track to streamline its business units. From a business point of view, ChatOn isn't a business that can show improvement in the future."
ChatOn was first launched in 2011 and is currently being used in 120 countries. This new report didn't state exactly when or where the ChatOn service would be shut down, although the unnamed Samsung execs claim that it won't happen immediately. Will any of you miss ChatOn when it's finally gone?

Tesco's Blinkbox now offers offline playback for movies and TV shows

 

Blinkbox today announced that iPad and Android tablet owners will be able to enjoy playback without an internet connection, thanks to a new offline mode. Just like we've had with music streaming services for some time, Blinkbox will allow subscribers to download their chosen film or TV show to watch on the go – perfect for travelling or in areas with poor signal.

Arriving just in time for the holiday season, co-founder and CEO of Blinkbox, Adrian Letts commented on the announcement:

"The ability to watch offline on tablets is one of the most frequently requested features and will transform the way many customers use blinkbox – whether that's by allowing more freedom to watch what they want in the home – or taking their entertainment on the move. I am pleased that we have been able to introduce download to tablet in time for the Christmas holidays so those who want to sneak off to bed, the pub or even another country can download a movie or their latest box set obsession and take it with them to enjoy without a connection."

The new watch offline update allows subscribers to download content on up to five connected devices. Tesco is also looking to push its new Hudl 2 tablet, which went live last month and has the Blinkbox app pre-loaded.

New encryption technology

New encryption technology hits nerve with DOJ

The latest technology used by Apple and Google to meet consumers’ demands on securing private data is hitting a nerve with the Department of Justice.

In a meeting last month with Apple executives, the No. 2 official at the Justice Department said the company’s new encryption technology that locks out law enforcement would lead to a tragedy. A child would die and the police would not be able to search the suspect’s phone, the official allegedly said.

Apple executives called the comments “inflammatory” and they told the government it could get the information from other sources, like telecommunication companies, leading to a standoff between Apple and the DOJ.

Law enforcement officials have said the new technology would make it harder for them to search phones for text messages, pictures and contacts. Apple would not have the key to decipher the information on the phone either, the Journal reports.

Apple's iMessage service also encrypts data from "end-to-end," but some experts say Apple's program has technical features that may leave it vulnerable to determined snooping.

Globally popular messenger app WhatsApp, owned by Facebook, is also using a powerful encryption to protect users’ conversation from unwanted snooping.

WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum has said he's deeply committed to user privacy because he grew up in the Soviet Union during the 1980s, when his mother and other adults routinely assumed that authorities eavesdropped on their phone calls.

TextSecure is designed to make WhatsApp messages unable to be read by anyone but the sender and recipient, even if subpoenaed. The encryption feature is offered by default, meaning WhatsApp users don't have to turn it on and shouldn't notice its presence, according to a statement from Open Whisper Systems.

At the Wall Street Journal’s global tech conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook stressed the importance of consumer privacy regarding their personal data.

Cook said if officials want something personal, they need to go to the user to get it, not the company.

Cook believes the consumer will appreciate the efforts to protect their privacy in case of a major catastrophe.

“When that happens everybody wakes up and says, ‘Oh my God,’ and they make a change,” he said at the conference. “What that event is, I don’t know, but I’m pretty convinced that it’s going to happen.”